“Jhidelle,” she said, letting her suit do the amplifying. “Last one. Any outliers?”
“Moyo and Lerox say no.” Between the dog’s fantastic nose and the weasel’s fearless sense of curiosity, they would have uncovered anything interesting, especially with Jhidelle guiding them. “The cats found a door. It’s marked exit, but it’s heavy and coded.”
Taz’s audio sensors identified the girl’s location as near the northwest corner. “On my way.”
She disabled the last timer, scanned it to be sure, then turned to Shen. “Find Moyo.”
Shen yipped twice, then turned to trot down the aisle. On impulse, Taz picked up the now-harmless Kem-X packet, then followed.
While she’d been working, she’d been pondering several questions. First, if her military-grade comms were blocked, how did Po and Pelvannor expect to get through with just commercial comms to trigger the timers? Second, if they’d known what type and how many Kem-X packets to get, why had they needed to kidnap Stramlo?
When she reached the corner, all the animals were there. The crates, too, because Jhidelle had dragged them down from the other entrance and opened their doors.
Taz set down the packet and stepped out of her suit. Overusing her teke talent to speed up the timer decomms left her ears ringing like bells.
The chilly air of the facility momentarily felt good on her sweat-soaked skin as she turned to face them with a tired grin. “Good job, all of you.” Shen’s and Moyo’s tails wagged. The cats’ ears pricked forward. Lerox chose that moment to lick his butt.
Taz laughed. “Is anyone thirsty?” She patted her thigh pocket. “I have extra water pouches and a collapsible bowl.”
Jhidelle’s eyes drifted a bit. “No, they’re good.” She pointed to the packet. “What’s that for?”
“Evidence.” That sounded better than muttering about instinct and curiosity. “Let’s take a look at the door.”
The substantial metal slab looked more like it led to a vault, similar to the one that was now a storeroom in the financial firm on the first floor. Still, the door and jamb had the standard bright colors and the word “exit” printed in a dozen languages. It also had a formidable code lock on the wall. Whoever designed the exit had evidently decided security was more important than safety.
“I need my suit for the scans. If the exit is blocked above us, we’ll have to go back to the lower basement. Either way, we need to crate the team. It’s the only way I can protect them.” She snapped her fingers. “Before I forget. Is your father a telekinetic minder?”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “No. Why?”
Taz shook her head. “Nothing, just a passing thought.” She climbed back in her suit to check the architectural records and run scans while she poked at the door controls with her GSAR magic.
After three long minutes, the lock begrudgingly accepted her codes. The door slowly irised open to reveal a small anteroom with a standard-sized lift at the end.
“Okay,” said Taz. “If I’m guessing correctly where we are, and the lift takes us up instead of down, and the building above is still standing, and the architectural records are correct, we’ll be in a space labeled ‘Recycling Overflow.’”
“That’s a lot of ‘ifs.’”
Taz paused. “Want to go back down instead?”
“No.” Jhidelle motioned Moyo toward the crate. “The animals don’t, either.”
As Taz hooked the crates to her suit again, she hoped the undisturbed dust in the anteroom and the wallcomp for the lift meant Po and Pelvannor hadn’t lined the lift shaft with explosives.
8
Salamaray Citizen Activity Center, Perlarossa • GDAT 3242.334
“No,” shouted Rylando so Po could hear him through the mask, “I can’t make my owl crawl through the air pipe to scope out the other side. She’s too big.”
Po’s expression soured again. Watching the rest of them work had apparently been boring enough to inspire a series of harebrained ideas. It never seemed to occur to him that they’d get out faster if he helped with the digging.
Or maybe it had. Rylando was rather certain that Po intended to shoot him, and maybe Stramlo, to give Po and Pelvannor time to escape.
They’d gouged out enough material that they should break through to the other side any minute. It would have been sooner if they hadn’t been forced to detour around a two-meter decorative block of denscrete.
Hatya’s tone sounded in his earwire. “Good news, bad news, and really bad news.”
Rylando grabbed the handle for the nearly full bin of tailings—Stramlo’s word—and pulled it out of the work area. “Go.”
“Good news. Two lifesigns and five animal signs just showed up on my scanners. They’re together. Still no comms, but I’m about to deploy a relay to see if I can fix that.”
He worked his way over the rubble to the dump pile. The bin’s poor wheels would never be the same. “Copy.” The hope that he’d be seeing his team and Taz again before the day was done made it easier to breathe.
“Bad news. The building is cracked all over. Whoever manufactured the denscrete did a shit job, and it aged badly. Fucking settlement company.”
Upending the bin made dust rise to temporarily envelope him. “Not surprised.”
“Really bad news. Bhayrip and the entire unit are back.”
Rylando froze in surprise. “Why? What happened?”
“Bhayrip has been trying to reach Silver Team for the last hour, but he couldn’t get through until the town got your borrowed uplink hub working. You are ordered to get your asses off the planet immediately and report to the space station right now. Even if you have to leave equipment behind. He can’t order me to do anything, but he made a strong request. He ignored questions, so I asked my Jumper buddy T’lem. The CPS is recalling all GSAR units across the galaxy. Officially, it’s a reorganization. Bhayrip probably wants you up there because the unit has two days to be in transit to the big military base on Lan Dalishi Epsilon for reassignment.”
It took him two tries to pick up the bin’s handle. He’d been expecting something like that for a multitude of ten-days, but the reality was still a shock. “What about you?”
“Separate, sealed orders from Jumper Command. Not reading them until I’m sure you and Taz are safe. Speaking of which, I’m going to chat with the ERC, seeing as how his regular job is the regional law enforcement chief. Back online in five.”
“Daylight!” shouted Stramlo.
Rylando pulled the empty bin carefully back to the dig. Worrying about impending disasters would have to wait. First, he had to deal with the one in progress.
Time to cinch up his rescuer harness and get everyone out safely.
Taz’s nose was running like a faucet by the time the doors to the Recycling Overflow room opened. More blowback from overusing her talent. And fucking annoying while stuck in a mech suit.
The room’s emergency lights revealed what looked like a landfill moon’s worth of broken and discarded tech, all covered with thick layers of undisturbed dust. In any other circumstance, she’d be tagging the veritable gold mine of contents for emergency requisition and evacuation to her tech repair lab.
“Stay put while I check.” Taz carefully pushed aside a stack of overflowing bins as she ran scans and tried comms again.
Rylando’s tone sounded. “This is a prerecorded ping. Get a sitrep from Hatya. Use the band and access codes I’m about to give you. They’re for Shen’s controller. She can help you.”
Tears of relief threatened when she heard his voice, crushing all the dire images her vivid imagination had been plaguing her with. Then his words sank in as she listened to the long strings of numbers and symbols.
“Taz,” asked Jhidelle, “want me to find out what Tzima is hearing? She’s a lot closer now.”
“Yes, please.” Taz pinged Hatya.
“Taz, welcome back. You and the doggos safe?” Hatya’s obvious concern renewed the threat of tears. Damnit, she didn’t
have time for wellsprings of emotion.
The scans came back with mixed results. “Yes and no.” She sent them to Hatya, then sent every other scan she’d taken that day for good measure. “We’re in a stable area, but the rest of the building is an accident waiting to happen.”
“Copy that. I’m sending you a map of the safest route out. But you need to know some things first.”
“Taz?” Jhidelle asked. “Tzima hears digging and muffled voices in front of the airsled.” The girl stepped into the room and promptly sneezed.
“Thank you, Jhidelle. I’m getting comms again. We’re getting out now. Cover your mouth and nose with the hem of your tunic and follow me.” Taz knew the words sounded abrupt, but she was juggling too many priorities at once.
Once she sent codes to open the far door, Taz pushed aside equipment to clear their path. “Okay, Hatya, what do I need to know?”
After listening to the bad news and orders from Bhayrip, she thanked Hatya, then described her plan to get Jhidelle to safety. She couldn’t involve Hatya in phase two of her plan, where she went back for Rylando instead of obeying the immediate recall order.
“I sent you a route to the lift lobby.” Hatya knew her too well. “See you there.”
Taz turned to Jhidelle. “How about I carry you and we see how fast my suit can run?”
Captain Hatya Wa’ara was not a happy Jumper. Life was an ever-unfolding adventure, but hers had taken a sharp vector change into the stinky offal pit of secrets and twisty politics.
Circling west of the ruined Citizen Activity Center, she looked for a good place to land the shuttle. Few buildings had survived the raw destructive power of tectonic-plate upheaval, but a cluster of tall trees stood huddled together like a herd of green sheep. That would do.
She wished she hadn’t read the separate orders she and the regular military pilots had received. She especially wished she hadn’t opened the orders for Jumper eyes only.
Regular pilots were instructed to get all GSAR personnel to the designated military base, even if it took commandeering a commercial freighter and to do so. The orders said to take all the equipment they could ship and leave the rest for the next squad. Space Div and the CPS outright threatened to charge the regular pilots with dereliction if they left even one GSAR staffer behind.
The top-secret orders from CPS Jumper Command, however, took the prize. After everyone left, Jumpers were to disable or destroy the GSAR equipment and resources, then hunt down and forcibly detain any GSAR staffers who evaded the recall order. Lethal force was authorized if the staffer resisted.
If nothing else, the orders confirmed that the rumors were all too true about how the recent base shutdowns had caused Minder Corps staff to go absent in droves. And apparently, the lesson the CPS’s dung-eating dunderhead leaders took from that debacle was to give GSAR employees even less notice so they wouldn’t have time to disappear. Fark!
The grove of trees was a tight fit, but the shuttle would be safer under trees that had survived instead of out in the open.
This would be her last mission on active duty. She’d pulled every dodge and twist to hide the fact that the fucking incurable waster’s disease had caught up with her early. Active Jumpers were supposed to be immune, but not her. The very next Jumper medic who examined her would decommission her on the spot.
Until an hour ago, she hadn’t been ready to leave the Corps she loved. But she hadn’t ever signed up to be a corporate fixer or a farking bounty hunter. She growled low in her throat. CPS High Command could suck flux. Jumper Command, too.
Ignoring the constant pain in her hip as beneath a Jumper’s notice, she strapped herself into the ship-loader assist frame and picked up the bag of goodies she’d gathered. Before she fell out of line for the last time, she had one final mission.
Jumpers never left teammates behind.
Rylando shoveled with renewed effort, working off his feelings and glad the mask made it harder for the others to read his expression. Hatya’s brief message said Taz was alive and well, and they’d both see him soon.
He was late in telling Taz so many things he should have, and now the reorganization threw any future into a chaotic maelstrom. If he survived Po’s plans.
Thanks to his recovered talent and Mariposa’s superior owl senses, he hadn’t needed to be anywhere near to overhear Po’s quiet orders. The moment the opening was wide enough, Pelvannor was supposed to shoot Rylando to disable him, grab Stramlo, and follow Po out to finish the job—whatever that was.
From Hatya’s annoyingly breezy comment, he’d bet it had something to do with the basement data center filled with explosives that Taz had “taken care of.”
“Hello.” The rich alto voice he’d know anywhere sounded muffled but close. “Subcaptain Correa from Galactic Search and Rescue. Do you need assistance?”
Po stood up. His startled expression morphed into craftiness.
Pointing the stunner at Rylando, he pointed toward the almost-excavated exit. “Tell her ‘yes,’ and to hurry, because Stramlo is bleeding.”
Rylando lifted his mask up long enough to shout, “Good to hear you again, Subcaptain. Yes, we need assistance. Three plus me. One is bleeding.”
“Copy.” Her tone was the model of professionalism. “In that case, I’ll clear the exit fast. Please step as far away as you can.”
Po frowned and motioned them all back.
Rylando moved with alacrity. He knew what Taz’s suit could do when she was motivated.
Stramlo crossed toward the airsled, but Pelvannor herded him toward Po instead.
Rylando edged farther back and left. Reaching out with his talent, he discovered his whole team was just on the other side. He sent them a warm greeting, then subvocalized a warning to Taz. “Po has a stunner. Pelvannor has the beamer.”
“Copy. Bang-flash in three.”
Even though he expected it, the bright explosive boom made his shoulders hunch. Stramlo crouched and covered his head. Po stumbled back and would have fallen over the block he’d been sitting on if Pelvannor hadn’t grabbed his arm and pulled him upright.
A blinding searchlight strobed through the now-wide gap, highlighting the new swirls of dust.
Stramlo launched himself toward the airsled and grabbed his messenger bag to sling across his shoulder.
Po snarled curses in Mandarin and pointed the stunner at Stramlo. “Set them now.”
Stramlo shook his head. “We’re too close.”
“We’ll be free in minutes. Pelvannor, motivate him.” The beam from Pelvannor’s weapon was close enough to char Stramlo’s pant leg. “The next one makes your kid an orphan.”
Rylando sent a request to Moyo. A loud, chill-raising howl echoed in the room, startling Po.
A moment later, a large, back-lit form appeared in the new opening. Hatya stepped into the room wearing the ship-loader assist frame over her Jumper uniform. Her loose, wild hair went perfectly with the berserker-crazy smile on her face. “Oh, target practice! Can I play?” Twin beamer arrays rose over her shoulders.
Pelvannor lowered her weapon.
Quicker than Rylando had thought possible, Po closed the distance and caught Stramlo by the neck, stunner pressed hard into the man’s temple. “Sure, right after Engineer Stramlo here does what I told him. I mean, what’s the point of using professionals if they aren’t going to do their fucking jobs? And you know what? I hate this fucking mask.” He pulled the mask off, half-strangling Stramlo in the crook of his elbow as he did so.
“Rylando,” said Taz in his earwire. “Po’s a low-level ramper and a haze of violence. Pelvannor’s a ramper, but she’s calm. She has a soft spot for animals. Moyo and Shen are armored up. Might distract her.”
“Okay,” he subvocalized. Sending a prayer to the universe to protect them, he asked both dogs to come to him. Rescue work sometimes meant hard choices — and trusting his partner’s judgment.
Moments later, Shen trotted in and made a beeline for him. Moyo followed more s
edately, looking more like a working hellhound in her black GSAR protective vest and helmet.
Pelvannor’s eyes flickered to the dogs, lingering longer on Moyo.
Rylando asked Moyo to see if the woman wanted a friend. Hopefully, the dog had forgotten her long-ago military training that told her to bite and shake people holding weapons.
“Tell you what,” said Po conversationally. “Since we all want out of this goddamn cave, Engineer Stramlo, Pelvannor, and I are going for a stroll.” He shoved the man forward into a stumbling walk, keeping the chokehold tight. “Give us a few minutes to get out of the building by ourselves and no one will get hurt.”
“He’s lying,” said Taz with certainty.
“Pelvannor!” yelled Po. “Leave the stinking dog alone and come do what Zumu told you. Protect my ass.”
Moyo’s magic had been working on Pelvannor, but now she stepped around the dog and followed Po and his prisoner.
“Let them go,” said Taz. “More options out here.”
Hatya hesitated, then stepped farther into the dusty lobby to get out of the way.
Though Pelvannor only glanced once at Hatya, the hand holding the beamer tightened as she passed by.
The second they were out of sight, Rylando asked the dogs to follow as he crossed to Hatya. “What’s the plan?”
Hatya smiled. “Our plan is to let them self-rescue their merry way out of the building.” She tilted her head toward the exit. “Yanoshi’s plan is to detain and restrain them for ques–”
Taz’s voice interrupted. “Frelling hell. Po just stunned Pelvannor, grabbed the beamer, and took off dragging Stramlo away from the exit.”
“I can handle Pelvannor,” said Hatya.
Taz swore. “I’m going after Stramlo. I don’t want to have to explain to his kid how he died.”
Rylando blew out a frustrated breath. “I’m sending Moyo and Shen out. Wait for me.” He patted both dogs and shared an image. “Find Taz,” he told them.
Galactic Search and Rescue: A Scifi Space Opera with Adventure, Romance, and Pets: A Central Galactic Concordance Novella Page 9